Saturday Six Sentences

Saturday Six is an exercise where you try to describe your reading for the week in six sentences.

It's been a very good week for me. I finally finished The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Tate. I leisurely read this YA title over a couple of weeks and I thoroughly enjoyed this Newbery Honor book.

I'm currently reading 8th Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Ruday-Perkovich. Do read Ari's interview with the author at Reading In Color and this crazy cool video I saw first at Fledgling. I love Reggie

Saturday Six Sentences on Sunday

Well clearly it's not Saturday which makes this late. I tell you what you work full-time, publish two blogs, manage three Facebook pages, launch a boycott and then adjust your protest because of the publisher's limp apology that nonetheless distracts folks so you shift gears, waging the same agenda albeit 'boycott', read (that's the foundation of all of this, right?) raise a teenager and do what you can to maintain a healthy relationship with your significant other. Let me know how well you manage blog schedule with all that.

Having said all that, I am happy to share with you my current reads. Saturday Six Sentences is an exercise where you describe all your reading for the week in six sentences. Let's see how I do.

I'm currently reading award winner, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly and I just picked up The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, illustrated by E.B. White. I'm excited about them both. I'm enjoying Calpurnia and I love, love, love Hughes.


Also reading for Women Unbound, Iran Awakening by Shrinin Ebadi which I relate to because of a personal experience you can read about at Color Online in our New Crayons: What's New On Our Shelf post that also includes a new read, Last Night I sang To the Monster which technically I haven't started because I'm busy writing articles on my blogs.

With two sentences to spare, I'm inviting you to join the POC Challenge and to join me and fellow bloggers in our campaign to publicly criticize publishers who whitewash book covers. Learn more at Readers Against WhiteWashing.

Saturday Six Sentences

Time for Saturday Six. At Color Online I mentioned we received a copy Come With Me, a collection of poetry for children by Naomi Shihab Nye.


The poems are whimsical, fun and insightful. I didn't read much poetry as a child. I'm playing catch up. What I have noticed over and over again is how sophisticated and simple children's poetry is, how it appeals to me the adult and the child I imagine I was. I say imagine because I don't know how I would have responded to these words when I was a child but I know the adult me wishes I had had this pleasure then. Read the title poem at Color Online.

Saturday Six Sentences

I am following Mr. Maurer's, of Coffee for the Brain, lead. The idea is to talk about what I've read for the week regardless of how many books in six sentences.

This week it's very easy to keep to the limit. I'm only reading one title at the moment, Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall, a classic women's lit title for Women Unbound.


I'm very early into the read but from the onset, I knew I was going to enjoy this because I was immediately reminded why I am drawn to Island and African writers: while they have distinctive voices, the common element among these writers is their imagery. Writers like Marshall, Jamaica Kincaid, Merle Collins and Chimamanda Nzogi Adichie create lush, seductive imagery; it renders the full measure of how language can move you. These kinds of reads can't be rushed.

Brown Girl, Brownstones is set in Brooklyn in the late 30s (ever wonder why so many incredible stories take place in Brooklyn). The protagonist, Selina is the daughter of immigrants from Barbados. She is caught between her parents' dreams and struggles and her own desires to be herself and not be shrouded in the memory of the infant son who died.

Saturday Six Sentences

Great week for reading and picking up new books. If you don't know, Saturday Six Sentences originally appeared at Mr. Maurer's Coffee For the Brain. The idea is to discuss everything you read in the week in six sentences. For those who habitually write in a truncated manner, this could be real challenging, but for those of us who marvel at Faulkner's six line single sentences, this is a fun and doable exercise. On to the books.


This week I finished Paper Towns by John Green and I can officially say the man rocks. I really love that is Margo is complex, daring and flawed, and Green is laugh out loud hilarious, I'm talking kickass funny (sorry for the swearing but it is so appropriate here). I'm finishing up Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen, a great memoir set in Michigan (my home state) in the 80s detailing a young girl's insatiable appetite to fit in. If you're a foodie, love memoirs and coming of age stories, pick this up. Lastly, picked up several early readers for CORA Diversity Roll Call: Amy Hodgepodge: All Mixed Up by Kim Wayans and Kevin Knotts, Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury and Keena Ford by Melissa Thompson, which I have started and I'm loving it.

Six sentences to whet your appetite; check in later this week to read more.

Saturday Six Sentences

I am following Mr. Maurer's, of Coffee for the Brain, lead. The idea is to talk about what I've read for the week regardless of how many books in six sentences. Love this. Thanks, MM.

Last week when I visited my stylist to get my locs tightened I had copy of Liar with me so I shared it with my stylist's daughter who was very interested in it. Of course, I let her keep it. In the meantime, I've been reading Paper Towns by John Green and just like Doret said, I am enjoying it. A few times, I've laughed out loud on the bus on my way to work.

According to very credible sources: my nine-year-old neighbor and my co-worker's eight-year-old daughter, Testing the Ice, is fantastic. Both young readers loved it.